Reconnect

“Reconnect” Montblanc’s 1858 watches are built for adventure, inviting us to go out and experience the world’s many wonders. The star product in the range, the Geosphere, reconnects us with nature.

When the pressure of work builds up; when being constantly connected puts impossible demands on our time, nature can be the best place to go and clear our head. Or so Montblanc’s latest “Reconnect” campaign wants us to believe. “It’s easy to get caught up in the intense pace of life and forget that the best way to recalibrate and find focus is to experience the beauty of nature,” says Nicolas Baretzki, Montblanc CEO. “Any kind of outdoor exploration is an extraordinary source of inspiration, contributing to greater creativity, happiness, and inner strength.” To illustrate his point, the campaign shows a fashion photographer and a singer-songwriter transported from their busy working environments into nature’s soothing surroundings, where they are able to “reconnect” with themselves and the world. At Montblanc, this (re)connection between man and nature takes the form of a watch whose attributes capture the force, harmony and majesty of the great outdoors. A watch that invites us to explore our surroundings as much as our inner selves. For the brand, this watch is the Montblanc

1858 Geosphere, already a tribute to the mountaineering world. As every geography student knows, Mont Blanc is the highest summit in the Alps. When celebrating the 160th anniversary of its Minerva Haute Horlogerie Manufacture in 2018, Montblanc thus decided to dedicate the Geosphere to the Seven Summits climb, the ultimate mountaineering challenge. These seven peaks are symbolised by as many red dots on the two domed hemisphere globes on the dial. Making one full rotation in 24 hours, the northern hemisphere globe turning anti-clockwise and the southern hemisphere clockwise, they track world times. Complementing this indication is a second time zone display, together with a date window.

Endless potential While the Geosphere is clearly the highlight of the 1858 collection, the entire range is a catalyst for the brand, with its “sport watch meets tool watch” style and proudly vintage accents. “Precise, legible and robust for use in extreme conditions, the legendary professional Minerva watches from

the 1920s and 1930s were conceived for military use and exploration,” notes the brand. “Inspired by these historic timepieces, the Montblanc 1858 pays tribute to the Minerva Manufacture’s extraordinary heritage.” Having made its debut in 2017 as a series of limited editions, the collection has since grown in stature. Signature features include cases in bronze, appreciated for the unique patina it develops with wear, and a clear vintage inspiration accentuated by khaki green dials and domed cathedral-shaped hands. Solidly built, the 1858 is the watch every adventurer should have in his backpack. Montblanc has good reason to reference Minerva in its collections. Established in 1858, it rose to prominence as a manufacturer of professional measuring instruments and timers for just about every trade and sport. A fact that hasn’t escaped collectors, as Nicolas Baretzki confirmed at January’s Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, in Geneva: “The completely revived Minerva offer is exciting for watch collectors who now stop by to check out the booth. There is so much more at Minerva to inspire us, whether from a technical perspective or in terms of its history. The potential is enormous.” Something to mediate in the quiet of nature, a Geosphere on your wrist. Christophe Roulet

stronger, and resistant to corrosion. However, it is also prone to scratching, hence some manufacturers are now using it in conjunction with scratchresistant ceramic. Omega uses both materials in its new Seamaster Diver 300M Ceramic. The case is made of ceramic and the caseback is in grade 5 titanium. The bezel is both: titanium topped by a black ceramic ring. Companies are also starting to alloy the two materials together for the perfect combination of strength, lightness and scratch-resistance. IWC combines them to create what it calls ceratanium in cases that are machined from a high-purity titanium alloy, then surface-finished before being baked in a furnace. The surface layer transforms into ceramic while the inside is still titanium. Ceratanium has a hardness of 1,300 Vickers and is 33% lighter than steel. It debuted in the brand’s iconic Top Gun pilot’s watch collection earlier this year. At least two other brands, Chopard and F.P.Journe, are working with titalyt, which is titanium reinforced by an electro-plasma treatment that enhances its hardness and abrasion-resistance.

The second golden age of watchmaking Panerai introduced a new material this year in its Submersible series called BMG-TECH, an alloy of zirconium, copper, aluminum, titanium and nickel which is injected into a mould at high pressure and high temperature then rapidly cooled. It is 70% more scratch-resistant than titanium, lighter than steel, and particularly resistant to corrosion and shocks. Ulysse Nardin’s most recent foray into new materials has yielded carbonium, a carbonbased material used by the aeronautics industry to make airplane fuselages and wings that is both

super-lightweight and strong. It is also noted for its sustainability. According to Ulysse Nardin, the production process has 40% less environmental impact than that of other carbon composite materials. Carbonium is being used in the brand’s Freak X collection. Not to be outdone, TAG Heuer recently used a carbon composite to make a balance spring. Produced using natural gas, it resists gravity, shocks, magnetic fields and variations in temperature, resulting in optimal precision. It was launched in the Carrera Calibre Heuer 02T Tourbillon Nanograph earlier this year. We are currently in the midst of the second golden age of watchmaking — the first being two centuries ago when the basic principles of watchmaking were invented. Now watchmaking is being reinvented, as luxury brands continue to, literally, make a better wheel. It’s an ideal time to invest in a good watch.

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I · TISSOT PR100 CHRONO. TISSOT DECIDED TO ADD A SPORTY CHRONOGRAPH TO THE PR100 SPORT-CHIC COLLECTION. ITS GENEROUS 38 MM CASE MAKES A STRIKING STATEMENT. FEATURES OF THE WATCHES ARE BOTH ROBUST AND BEAUTIFULLY STREAMLINED, AS SHOWN BY THE STRONGER BEZEL, AND SIMPLIFIED BRACELET, MAKING THIS AN EASY PIECE TO WEAR. II · RADO HYPERCHROM SKELETON. CRAFTED FROM MATT BLACK HIGH-TECH CERAMIC, THE MODEL SPORTS A STARK YET SUBTLE LOOK. CREATED BY FIRING CERAMIC COMPONENTS WITH BLACK PIGMENT AT 1450°C IN A HIGH-TECH OVEN, SUPER HARD HIGH-TECH CERAMIC DEVELOPS ITS MATT BLACK FINISH THROUGH SAND BLASTING.

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III · SLIM D’HERMES TITANIUM. THE NEW SLIM D’HERMÈS ASSERTS ITS SINGULAR CHARACTER THROUGH COLORFUL TOUCHES. ITS ULTRALIGHT TITANIUM CASE, ITS ANTHRACITE DIAL LIT UP WITH HERMÈS ORANGE AND ITS ULTRA-THIN MANUFACTURE HERMÈS MOVEMENT FORM A LIVELY YET UNDERSTATED COMPOSITION. IIII · ZENITH DEFY INVENTOR. PRESENTED IN THE DEFY LAB IN 2017, ZENITH’S REVOLUTIONARY OSCILLATOR IS NOW GREENLIGHTED FOR SERIAL PRODUCTION IN THE DEFY INVENTOR. THIS STRATEGIC COMPONENT IS MANUFACTURED AS A SINGLE, ULTRA-THIN PART OPERATING AT A VERY HIGH FREQUENCY OF 18 HZ (129,600 VIB/H) AND REPLACES THE THIRTY-SOME PARTS OF A STANDARD REGULATOR.

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V · BLANCPAIN FIFTY FATHOMS. UPON ITS RELEASE IN 1953, FIFTY FATHOMS, THE FIRST MODERN DIVER’S WATCH, IMMEDIATELY APPEALED TO PROFESSIONAL DIVERS. ITS MAIN ORIGINAL TECHNICAL AND AESTHETIC CHARACTERISTICS, REVISITED AND COMPLEMENTED BY A DATE IN THE 2000S, ARE NOW TEAMED WITH A TITANIUM CASE. VI · CHOPARD LUC CHRONO ONE FLYBACK. THIS VERSION OF THE MODEL PLACES THE EMPHASIS ON SPORT AND MASCULINE PURSUITS WITH A PLAY ON COLOURS THAT IS ENTIRELY NEW TO THE L.U.C. COLLECTION. THE CASE IS DARK AND MATT, THANKS TO THE USE OF TITALYT® A MATERIAL WIDELY USED IN THE AEROSPACE, AERONAUTICAL AND MEDICAL FIELDS.